he begins to entertain vengeful thoughts, especially after the ghost of his father, who spoke with him on the battlements, confirms his suspicions, saying: “Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder!” “Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive against thy mother aught; Leave her to heaven.” “Remember me.” This presents the ultimate strife between Hamlet’s rational mind and his idealistic heart, which is well illustrated by his famous deliberation: “To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them? To die, to sleep; No more; and by a sleep to say we end The heartache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to, ‘tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep; To sleep; perchance to dream; ay, there’s the rub.” Hamlet says, “Now there is nothing left but revenge.” He appears wholeheartedly set on the idea, but it was well known that Hamlet was a gentle and good hearted young man, so this must have caused him great inner-dissention as he would normally do no harm to another human being. Yet here were thoughts of murderous revenge in his head and in killing Claudius, he would cause pain to his mother, the very thing the ghost of his father forbade him to do. This causes him to sometimes wonder if the ghost spoke ...
